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Thursday, September 30, 2010

The Well Tempered Clavier

I recently obtained a 4CD set of "The Well Tempered Clavier" by J.S.Bach. It is performed by Glenn Gould and I have been totally immersed in those 48 Preludes and Fugues for the past few days. I admire the harmony and powerful themes of this music. It communicates something very complex yet very definite to the listener. Perhaps the inticate patterns of an oriental rug or tiles arranged in intricate patterns come to mind here. The overall effect is one of harmony and mystery, some themes becoming emphasized in the listener's mind.
It is difficult to listen to discs 1-4 in sequence, so I interpolated discs 1 and 2 of Brahms Klaviersonaten which had the agreeable effect of leaving one impressed by the power and virtuosity of both Brahms and Bach, yet reducing the sweet treacle effect of the Bach. The Brahms had a harmonious and definite sound to it, but was more flowery, romantic and indeterminate. Where patterns seem to rise up before one when listening to the Bach it seemed to me that there were strongly defined but rosier themes in the Brahms.
All of the composers I have discussed in these posts seem to me to have a clear definite touch to them. In some parts of the Bruckner symphony cycle I seem to detect a reaching out to the world. The music inspires in me a sense of the powerful forces that created nature itself. The Mozart is a flowing of musical etiquette. The Bruckner Symphonies reminded me most of the times I spent in Far North Queensland, where I was reaching out to the world all around me in a two man tent pitched on solid eath.

Monday, May 10, 2010

Listening to the Piano Sonatas

If there is one area of Mozart's output I find particularly fascinating it is that of his piano sonatas. With the exception of Sonatas 1-5 I find all of the piano sonatas compelling listening. These latter works form constantly refreshing and poignantly beautiful sound as they are played, their internal dramas form and reform in my mind. I think Mozart's mastery of the keyboard is one of the finest and I have no doubt he was of the virtuoso class as I hear them yet again. Where Bach's tremendous outpourings for the keyboard tend to ramble interminably, Mozart's compositions rivet the listener to every note and one pricks up one's ears in anticipation of his emphatic rhythms and charming melodies.
Sonatas 1-5 are also interesting works but tend to throw the listener into a more contemplative, reflective mood. If the mind is attempting to spring into action Sonatas 6-8 with their emphasis on the virtuoso keyboard come to the listening fore. Sonatas 9-12 are a core of beautiful but bright listening, the slower movements making for deeply poignant moods. Sonatas 13-14 including the Fantasia in C Minor are brilliantly dramatic works containing many deeply moving slow passages. Sonatas 15-17 including the Sonata in F Major once again show off Mozart's sense of subtle, moving charm.
In contrast, I found many of the Piano Variations much duller on the ear, but when Mozart commands attention, even at times in these, he does so completely. The Sonatas form a plateau of intense listening pleasure and they move the mind towards rationality, each note following the next with a mathematical precision. The Bach experience in "The Well Tempered Clavier" is quite a different one, with polyphonic effects being entirely absent from the Mozart works. You feel that Mozart's Sonatas were intended to directly engage a small but attentive audience, whereas the endless Fugues of Bach are for rambling around the keyboard mainly to amuse Bach himself. Mozart's themes have a definite beginning, a middle section and an end whereas after listening to many of Bach's Fugues the listener just remains hopelessly confused. I can see Mozart performing his sonatas in a drawing room setting-you tend to envisage Bach banging away merrily to himself in an attic somewhere, not absolutely certain where the music is going.
Some stretches along Bach's Immense keyboard highway can startle you with their intensity, even virtuosity, but I never return time and time again to listen there as I do with Mozart.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Making a Listening Commitment to Mozart.

Lately, I have been focussing on Mozart's Piano Sonatas and Variations. I have discovered that these piano works of Mozart tend to focus my thoughts far more than his piano Concertos, which, though very inspiring, tend to become too familiar. The sonatas tend to pick up my thoughts and concentrate them particularly well. It is difficult for me to listen to the entire piano sonatas in one listening session although I have achieved that once or twice.
I tend to listen to about four of those Daniel Barenboim CD's before turning to the softer tones of the singing and orchestra of the Operas. I turn most often to "Cosi fan Tutti" or "The Marriage of Figaro".These Operas are also useful for tuning up my thinking though without the harsh sound of the solo piano virtuoso increasingly getting on my nerves. The Operas,conducted by Barenboim, tend to quieten down the listening experience.
I also tend to listen to the ethereal beauty of the Variations contained in the Minuet in D, K355, The Fantasia in D Minor, K397, The Rondo in D, K485, The Adagio in B Minor, K540, and completed by the Eine Kleine Gigue in G, K574. These I have played by the Japanese Pianist Mitsuko Uchida.These variations also pick up and concentrate my thoughts.
I tend to think of Mozart's earliest Piano Sonatas, 1-5, K279, 280, 281, 282, and 283 as being of a slightly cooler flavour than his later ones which awe me with their intensity. Sonatas 1-5 tend to ramble considerably, far more the rest which I think have far more diversity and delineation.
The "Marriage of Figaro" cheers me up enormously, while the darker themes of "Don Giovanni" tend to tear at me. Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau makes a compelling Count in "The Marriage of Figaro" but there is much gay and poignant beauty throughout these three Operas.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

"The Marriage of Figaro" to the rescue.

I had little to do today but turn on my computer and listen to some of the music stored there. I had taken my mother on an outing from the private hospital she was recovering in yesterday. She had fallen down some stairs at her home and fractured some bones in her pelvis. Walking was still fairly painful for her and the nurse said that she had better use her wheelie-walker while she was out and not attempt to climb any stairs. At about 9.45am we got into a taxi and headed along Oxley road in search of a restaurant. She said she would like to go to the Coffee Club in Toowong. I knew this was likely to cost a bit of money as the distance from the private hospital at Oxley to Toowong was considerable.
But we arrived at last and she agreed to pay the driver with her credit card. (The fare was about $30.00). The Coffee Club was definitely open and in full swing-it was Easter Saturday-I could barely hear myself talk above the din of the talk of other diners and the television there. We ordered omelettes with spinach and mushrooms as well as some orange juice and a milkshake. At last the drinks and food arrived and we had our repast. This time the bill was around $40.00. I agreed to pay half.
Next, we went to Toowong Village-a shopping mall nearby. It was even noisier and more crowded there. My mother had trouble keeping pace with me as I attempted to make my way through the crowds. After fighting our way through to the toilets we returned to some chairs in an out of the way corner on the ground floor. She asked me to go off and buy some mandarins and apples. I did this and paid the balance of the bill with my own money, some $2 or so. She said she would like something to drink, so I bought her a 600ml carton of milk with straw. We sat for a while and talked. At length she said she would like to return to the hospital as she had some pain in her lower back.
So off we went with me leading the way through the dense crowds and in search of a taxi to take us back. She waited on the side of the kerb nearest the mall while I jumped into a cab on a nearby rank and told the driver to do a U-turn and pick mother up. This accomplished we set out for Canossa Private Hospital and on arrival there she once again paid with her credit card. The whole affair had cost us that much and as we regained her room on the fourth floor of the hospital the nurses were preparing her for a dose of the painkillers she was on. I stayed on for a few minutes and finally decided to leave. It was the first time I had ever been to that hospital and didn't know the area at all so I asked her if I could borrow some money for a taxi to Oxley train station. She handed me a $20 note and off I went, first catching a train into Central Station and then a bus out to New Farm.
On my return to my room in New Farm, I found three messages on my phone, all from my mother. The first two anticipated my arrival at the hospital that morning hoping that I would come quickly and get there soon. The third was a rebuke for the cost of the outing and my poor dress which she thought made me look like a "street urchin". She sounded very angry and upset. Oh, well, there's no point in arguing with any of that. Back to Mozart Sonatas and Beethoven Piano Concertos 3&4 and the Mozart Requiem K626. I think I also tossed in two of the three CD's of "The Marriage of Figaro". I needed something to get me going the next day.

Friday, March 26, 2010

A Rest from Work

Well I am just recovering from last week's work-out with Steppingstone, an organisation which helps people suffering from a psychiatric malady. I help out at the Cafe Unit where members can order drinks such as coffee and fruit juice as well as a few things to eat during the day. I serve behind the till taking orders for the different items. I try to do a bit of reading during a morning's work but find this very hard to do as the stream of customers is very steady. On Friday I just went on strike so to speak and got out David Pogue's book on the internet and read that all morning instead of doing my usual shift. Luckily, some other members were around to take the workload and the staff there that morning didn't seem to mind.
I find that I can read while listening to my music from an ipod and can pass a morning quite enjoyably reading computer books in this way. The mozart piano sonatas have a very incisive and trenchant sound to them which has a way of focussing my attention on the printed page. The Mozart piano style generally is one in which the playing is very orderly so reading while listening to mozart isn't much of a problem. This morning I spent a few hours listening to Mozart's piano concerto's. They are a very bright spot in my listening hours and raise my spirits considerably. The bright melodies prepare me for different tasks during my day. But I have lately become interested in the more mysterious tones of the Russian composers particularly the Prokofiev Piano Cocertos as well as the works of Stravinsky, and I will see whether I can acquire any of these from the Itunes Store.
The sound of Daniel Barenboim plaing the different Mozart piano Sonatas is one which I never tire of and the poignant slow movements are very restful and beautiful. Vladimir Ashkenazy's performance of the Mozart piano concertos is very professional but I can find my attention wandering while he plays them.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Life in Brisbane

As I returned to life in Brisbane, thoughts concerning Mozart came back to me and I found myself buying his music again. The music settled me down a lot and I suppose by this time I was listening to all of those piano sonatas and quite a few of the piano concertos. I still tuned in to rock and roll radio and even bought records of Johnny Mathis and Wayne Newton, American rock and roll giants whom I thought had interesting and exciting voices. But I was still playing a lot of classical music at the boarding houses I lived in at that time and the new Brisbane classical and Jazz F.M. radio station 4MBS had me as a steady listener. Over the years I have virtually ceased listening to rock and roll music, or even Jazz and now concentrate entirely on classical. My music library now mainly consists of Mozart's music plus some Tchaikovsky, Liszt and Prokofiev. I find that ABC-FM plays some interesting classical music, though I tend to enjoy the afternoon Programs where you can listen to long pieces more easily. Say, a complete symphony or piano concerto or chamber music work playing on the air for an hour or so.
The political climate in Queensland had now changed, but there were no restrictions on any of the classical music one could buy. In fact, at one time I had the opportunity to purchase the complete works of Mozart on CD for about $1000 or so I think, but I turned that down. One thing that depressed me a little was that in recent months at least there have been no specialist classical music stores selling a large variety of classical music CD's. Only small ranges of this type of music can now be found at different stores in Brisbane. I find that the classical music I play is at once dramatic, exciting, and comforting to me. I can easily spend an afternoon listening to it.
It is a haven from the clamour of big city life. I need to see people every day but yearn for the privacy of my room where I can listen to piano music uninterrupted for one or two hours at a time.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Joy in Cairns

While I was camping at Port Douglas I had only a $10 radio with me which I could use to tune in to the Cairns radio stations which played rock and roll. There may have been an ABC-FM station which played a little classical music too. The era was still the one of L.P.'s and vinyl discs and I had left all of my audio and hi-fi equipment in Canberra. I felt on top of the world as I roamed around in Tropical North Queensland, drinking in the beautiful scenery and the sparkling placid water. Finally, I boarded the train which would take me back to freezing old Canberra. I felt completely elated and in command of myself.
After a few days on the train with all the stopping and starting at the different stations, I finally boarded the Sydney-Canberra train. My mood was still triumphant and I resolved to stick to the three year contract I had with the Public Service and then resign and head off to North Queensland permanently. I consequently completed my term in the Public Service and at the end of three years of employment, resigned my post as an Examiner of Trade Marks and headed straight off back to Cairns. I didn't regret my decision for an instant, in any case I felt that I would get nowhere in the Public Service. I very much needed to break away from the world of desks and stressful work which bound me to them. I was going to become a dropout, but I couldn't take any more of the clerical life. My marriage plans had fallen through and I felt that there was little keeping me in Canberra now.
After my return to Cairns I spen 4-5 years roaming around that tropical wilderness, travelling past Cape York along to Weipa in a Prawn fishing trawler and visiting some of the rainforests there. The experience refreshed me enormously and once again, I felt as though I had the world at my feet. I had a little money on me as the Australian Government was paying me Unemployment benefit at the time. Gradually, though, I fely my thoughts returning homewards and I finally drove back to Brisbane in an old Valiant Sedan I had purchased for about $600 or so with my tax refund. At least after all those experiences I was sane, well and truly alive and physically well!

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Thoughts about Mozart (Cont.)

The City Caravan Park was full of campers, some in tents and others in caravans. Somehow, I managed to get to sleep for a single night and then, the next morning took a bus ride into the city of Cairns. It seemed like a pretty place with many wide streets. There were supermarkets, cafes, hotels, banks and other shops there. I was surprised I had made it to this tourist mecca at all. It was fun wandering around there, I had never seen anything quite like it.
Facing the harbourside there was a long esplanade park and walkway where the quiet water lapped against concrete walls. I bought some meat and other provisions and returned to the caravan park. After I had sojourned at the park for a week or two, meeting some other campers there, I thought I might take a trip up to Port Douglas, about 50 km. or so up the coast. A van which seated eight or so people took me up there and I set up camp at the local council caravan park. I was soon meeting people and it was easy to walk to the township and the harbour of Port Douglas. There was an inexpesive boat cruise out to the Low Isles followed by a salad lunch available so I thought I would go along on that. It was a terrific outing , and once on the Low Isles everyone donned snorkels and flippers and swam around and beneath the ocean, where you could see all sorts of tropical fish and exotic marine life. I was astounded at what I saw there, and felt enormously invigorated by that swim. I returned to my tent feeling like a new man.
The enormous Palm trees with their coconuts stretched along a long white beach. I had never experienced anything like this before. I felt like some sort of castaway in that lush tropical setting.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Thoughts about Mozart (Cont.)

Luckily, a Jewish friend of mine had been holidaying in Far North Queensland, so I thought I would take a look at this part of the world to which my elder brother Philip had gone with his de facto wife several years before. As the train passed through the Queensland border I felt the northern warm weather passing into every part of my frost-bitten body. At Roma Street Station in Brisbane I had to board the Sunlander train which would take me about 1000km. up the Queensland coast to Cairns. As the diesel train chugged on I became more relaxed but I wasn't really sure what to expect at the end of my journey.
Finally, after 2-3 days journey I disembarked at Cairns Railway Station. The train had made brief stops at many other stations en route and I had found myself loving the hanging potplants and ferns that adorned many of the Northern Stations. Cairns Station itself was devoid of any shrubbery but it had a very homely feel to it like many of the other stations we had passed through.
After a brief look beyond the confines of Cairns Station I began to drag my luggage along the road. I had no idea where I would stay. The weather was warm and balmy and at last I decided to opt for camping and fetched up at a nearby disposals store. I put some money down for a two man tent. I then made for the City Caravan Park where I eventually pitched the tent. All this was a completely new adventure for me. I didn't have the slightest idea of what to do, I simply felt my way along to the cooking and sleeping episodes that awaited me. I felt enormously stimulated by the trip and the campsite and a new and exciting chapter had definitely opened up in my life.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Thoughts about Mozart (Cont.)

The Canberra Winters took a lot of getting used to. During the Winter months I was never completely free from the terrific cold whether there was a radiator or central heating or not. Even warm clothing did not dispel the all-pervading cold much. I made a couple of friends at Narellan House one of whom I would play a set or two of tennis with from time to time. Peter Young was a very good tennis player and a good all round sportsman, keen on basketball too. He later moved to the on-campus college, Toad Hall, which was slightly cheaper than other on-campus colleges. He later married while I was working in the Public Service in Canberra and had a couple of children shortly after the marriage.
I suppose I was buying a few L.P.s from time to time and generally familiarizing myself with Bach harpsichord music and other music of Mozart and other composers. I can't remember whether I purchased a set of the Mozart piano sonatas in the A.C.T. or not, perhaps I was still dabbling with his piano concerti. I'm certain that I continued to play his works and remained solidly impressed with them.
While I was still living in Canberra I took a couple of trips to the South-Eastern New South Wales Coast and a few to Sydney. Unfotunately I had some bad experiences trying to stay awake while I was driving. I tended to drowse at the wheel, the quantity of medication I was on was heavy too I think. While in a private hospital at the beginning of my employment in the Public Service I met a Jewish girl called Michal Leslie. I met her family there and after I left Canberra and returned to Queensland and Brisbane, we had a correspondence lasting about thirty years.
She was interested in getting married and having children, but didn't know anything about music at all. My musical experiences were therefore solitary ones connected with Hi-Fi and recorded music. I remember recording a few tracks from Schubert Lieder and the Bach Cantatas I loved for my co-workers to hear. I think that they liked the music which was recorded on a cassette, but after I resigned my job at the Patents Office there was no further communication about it.

Monday, March 8, 2010

Thoughts about Mozart (Cont.)

I started the Practical Legal Training Course at the A.N.U. and resided at Narellan House in a single room. Narellan House was full of students doing their different courses and unable to pay the expensive rents for on-campus college rooms. There was a billiard table at Narellan House and the students would play annual competitions on it. A set of Snooker balls was also there for people wishing to play that game. There was also a table tennis table, and competitions were also held on that. I won the annual tournament held in table tennis in the year I resided there.

Gradually, I began to take in Canberrra and the University. Narellan House was situated very close to the central city mall called "Civic" and the University itself was also close to the city centre.
Not a great many of the students were following classical music at Narellan, but I looked in at a couple of the music stores in Canberra. In particular I remember one at Manukah where I listened to a few records of Bach Cantatas. I hadn't as yet begun exploring Mozart in any detail. The intense cold of the region began to make itself felt. The Summer months were hot, but the lasting impression was of the Winter months and the incredible cold which came with them. Temperatures during that time were often below zero and despite central heating in the hostels you could feel the cold quite keenly. Often an icy wind would accompany me as I walked about.

Thoughts about Mozart (cont.)

The sounds of Mozart's piano sonatas were making an indelible impression on my mind when an opportunity came up for me to acquire practical legal training in a six month course at the Australian National University. I decided to take up an offer of a place in the course and to travel to Canberra by train. I also booked a room in an off-campus residential complex called Narellan House. The train trip was a long one and also a fairly lonely one for me. I slept on the seat in a second class smoking carriage placed right at the rear of the train. You could smoke on passenger trains back then, around 1977/78. In my youthful folly I had taken up the habit of smoking tobacco, a move I later deeply regretted and personally rejected.
After travelling from Brisbane to Sydney I had to change trains for Canberra at Sydney's Central Station. I remember spending many lonely hours watching people endlessly come and go in the station until the departure of the Sydney to Canberra train was announced in the early evening. I had no idea of the city I was coming into or the people I would be mixing with. Finally, however the train arrived in Canberra and somehow I found my way to Narellan House. I unpacked my bags and entered my room.
I was probably carrying around too much gear in those days and I was certainly carrying some Hi-Fi which included a turntable for L.P. records, a pair of speakers and not a few L.P.'s as well. I also had a tennis racquet and a few books. In my collection of L.P.s I might well have been carrying the boxed set of the Marriage of Figaro I had bought in Brisbane years earlier plus a few L.P.'s of Bach Cantatas and other Bach harpsichord works. The overwhelming majority of records I had would have been classical, but not necessarily of Mozart at that time.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Between Listening Sessions

I have decided not to let Mozart take complete control of my life and jot down a few thoughts about the music I have been thoroughly enjoying for the past forty or so years. I began my foray into Mozart's music by purchasing one of his operas, The Marriage of Figaro, in about 1971, when I was beginning University studies. At first the music was completely unfamiliar, but after I had played it a few times parts of the music stayed with me and became familiar to me.
I thought that some sections were delightful, that a lot of the music was very dramatic, and very possibly that other sections were just plain boring. But on the whole I could honestly say that I had picked up something new in my world of music and I began to enter an entirely new dimension in my musical thinking.
Mozart was starting to grow on me. My youngest brother thought that the whole project was ludicrous, my mother gave cautious approval. I left home and after leaving the University started to share a house with some guys who were post graduate and very keen music lovers. One guy, who had attended the local grammar school with me, had Mozart's complete piano sonatas on L.P.